Last year, Google made it mandatory for apps such as loan apps to declare their Financial features to be available for people to download. A report has now claimed that despite the policy change to bring these stricter rules, more than a dozen apps are still available for download from the Google Play Store.
According to nonprofit publication Rest of World, more than a dozen predatory loan apps which target and harass users are still available to download from Google’s app store. These apps have been exploiting borrowers in various countries, including Mexico to India.
What are predatory loan apps
Some loan apps lend small amounts of money with few requirements and very high interest rates to financially vulnerable people. They then try to get their money back even before the loan repayment is due and use various tricks, such as extortion.
These apps ask for permission to other apps such as camera roll or contacts. The publication found 15 such apps in Mexico, and out of those 15, 12 explicitly asked for access. It also found 10 apps in Peru. The publication said that all the apps were available to download at the time of reporting.
The apps threaten users with distributing fake pornographic or incriminating photos to their family and friends if payments are not made. Furthermore, the user data is also shared with other such apps.
What Google has to say
Google said that it was aware of the issue and regularly takes down predatory loan apps.
“We take this problem very seriously and we are committed to offering a safe platform for billions of Android users,” Ricardo Zamora López, head of communications for Google Mexico, was quoted as saying.
“We will keep investigating and collaborating with the corresponding authorities [in Mexico] in the ongoing investigations, with whom we’ve already established a protocol,” López added.